The USA FREEDOM Act passed, but that doesn't mean we stop fighting our government's attempts to worm its way into every nook and cranny of our lives, as Amnesty International helps you tell President Obama to do what he can to ban mass governmental surveillance. You'll ask him to amend the Reagan-era Executive Order 12333, which the NSA has been using to justify mass surveillance across the planet, and you'll also ask him to make surveillance a lot more transparent, end surveillance-sharing among nations, and ensure that surveillance only happens when our government gets a warrant, which is all we freedom-lovers have ever asked. If you'd like to remind Congress that they're not off the hook just because they managed to pass a law, then Roots Action still helps you tell your Congressfolk to support the far-better Pocan-Massie bill, H.R. 1466, the Surveillance State Repeal Act, which would repeal both the USA PATRIOT Act and the FISA Amendments Act and thus put government surveillance on a more Constitutional footing. You'll want to edit the email to reflect that the USA FREEDOM Act has now passed, but good hunting.
Meanwhile, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf has pledged to restore the education funding (as well as funding for environmental protections, domestic violence programs, and a litany of other things) that Gov. Corbett cut, but Republicans seem determined to keep it cut. The whole BUT WE'RE BROKE!!!! line of argument doesn't persuade as many people as it used to -- it still persuades too many people, since any number of people in excess of zero would constitute too many -- but then Republicans might be counting on the whole "budget's gotta get done by the end of June" thing (a hostage situation, you may realize) to induce Gov. Wolf to do their will. Why we're even talking about their will, of course, is everything wrong with politics right there -- we should be talking about the people's will, and if the people really wanted these education cuts, they'd have re-elected Tom Corbett, instead of bucking one of the largest Republican waves ever and tossing him out. Keystone Progress helps you remind your elected representatives to do your will, not theirs, and restore funding for vital public services from which we all benefit.
Speaking of Pennsylvania budgeting, Republicans are also resisting any attempt to force gas drilling corporations to pay a severance tax on the gas they extract from our lands, like they do in every other state (even ones considerably redder than Pennsylvania). Because FREEDOM! And nothing means freedom like gas drillers paying nothing for the privilege of extracting gas from public lands and polluting our drinking water with their filthy fracking chemicals. Seriously, how much is enough for these clowns? They already set our drinking water on fire and render it brackish and gelatinous; should they really get to do all that for free? And again, the Governor who called an impact fee "un-American" and acted like he had to do whatever gas drillers wanted because JOBZ!!!! is gone from the Governor's mansion, defeated in his re-election effort as if a massive Republican wave hadn't swept across the land. Hence the Union of Concerned Scientists helps you tell Pennsylvania state legislators to stop blocking efforts to enact a severance tax on gas drillers.
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